For a few years now, SEO web design experts have advised their clients to use article directories to help build up their new site’s content fast. This is still true but it is not always beneficial. There are certain drawbacks because of the changes in how the search engines are programmed.
The main draw of article directories is that they allowed individuals to submit articles to a directory that was usually well written and SEO correctly for a particular keyword. The advantage of giving away this free piece of work was the byline. This contained the author’s name and a link to their website. Your article could be read and the link followed to your website or even better, someone could use your article on their website. This is permissible just as long as the article goes unchanged and the byline is also placed on the website.
The challenge when submitting to article directories is that the articles have to be SEO correctly, unique, and original. Some of the software that scans each submission is not perfect and they reject articles for no apparent reason. But once an article is submitted with your backlink attached, the search engines will recognize it and give your ranking a boost. It might be a tedious process to submit a number of articles to the favorite directories of Google and Yahoo, but most think it is well worth the time. At present, the favorite directories are Ezine, Articles Base, and Go Articles.
With more and more articles being submitted to these directories, it is becoming harder to get noticed and have your article used by others. To overcome this, many of those submitting articles have increased the volume of article they are submitting. The keywords that are used are fundamental in the success of your article marketing campaign for SEO link building.
The requirements for each article directory are different so the instructions must be read and remembered for each one. Some prefer articles with word counts over 600 while other permit ones as short as 250 words. The use of eye catching headlines is recommended to get readers’ attention. This is much like a press release, grab the attention of the visitor and make them want to read more. The most important SEO item of the articles is still the proper keywords. This has to include the right placement of the keywords and the right keyword density. The keywords should be placed in the beginning of the article and at the end, with sporadic placements in the body of your article. The density of the keywords should be 1% or less. This way, the articles are more readable and you will avoid being labeled as a blackhat technique user.
There are no rules about what the search engines like or dislike, just hints from press releases. Many still believe the spiders only look at the first 1500 characters of an article. There is no proof of this but it is the reason for the short articles.
Using article directories to help build your SEO link building still has some benefits, but the progression of surfers to the different social network sites has changed what SEO web design experts are thinking and employing with their tactics on the web today.
Maria Johnsen